Strange object washes up on beach, sparking alien theories

A mysterious object that washed up on a beach has left a local community baffled, with experts admitting they're unsure what it is and where it came from.

The cylindrical object weighing about 90kgs appeared on the Seabrook Island shoreline in South Carolina on Thursday.

Lauren Rust, the executive director of the Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network, was among the first on the scene.

"There's no metal on it. The whole thing is just layers of foam," she told The Post and Courier, before posting images on Facebook in the hope someone might be able to identify it.

"It also doesn't look like it's been in the water that long. You'd think if it were in the water (for a long period of time), it would be covered in barnacles and all sorts of (sea life)."

She said although it appears to be made of concrete, it actually feels "like a soft foam".

With no official answer as to what it is, the theories, some more outrageous than others, began rolling in on social media.

"I'm not saying it's aliens, but it's aliens," one person suggested.

"It's the death star," another insisted.

Joe Cronin, Seabrook Island town administrator, told local media: "We get stuff that washes up all the time. Just in the last few months we've had docks (and) dead animals," he said. "Unless someone claims it as theirs, we probably won't have certainty one way or the other."